north. It has no other
company but a beautiful young girl, who leans out of a window high
over its head, and I have no doubt talks with it. At the moment we
discovered the friends, the maiden was looking pathetically to the
northward, while the palm softly stirred and opened its plumes, as a
bird does when his song is finished; and there is very little question
but it had just been singing to her that song of which the palms are
so fond,--

"Ein Fichtenbaum steht einsam
Im Norden auf kahler Hoeh'."

Grossetto does her utmost to hide the secret of this tree's
existence, as if a hard, matter-of-fact place ought to be ashamed of
a sentimentality of the kind. It pretended to be a very worldly town,
and tried to keep us in the neighborhood of its cathedral, where the
caffe and shops are, and where, in the evening, four or five officers
of the garrison clinked their sabres on the stones, and promenaded up
and down, and as many ladies shopped for gloves; and as many citizens
sat at the principal caffe and drank black coffee. This was lively
enough; and we knew that the citizens were talking of the last week's
news and the Roman question; that the ladies were really looking for
loves, not gloves; that such of the officers as had no local intrigue
to keep their hearts at rest were terribly bored, and longed for
Florence or Milan or Turin.

Besides the social charms of her piazza, Grossetto put forth others
of an artistic nature. The cathedral was very old and very
beautiful,--built of alternate lines of red and white marble, and
lately restored in the best spirit of fidelity and reverence. But
it was not open, and we were obliged to turn from it to the group of
statuary in the middle of the piazza, representative of the Maremma
and Family returning thanks to the Grand Duke Leopold III. of Tuscany
for his goodness in causing her swamps to be drained. The Maremma and
her children are arrayed in the scant draperies of Allegory, but
the Grand Duke is fully dressed, and is shown looking down with some
surprise at their figures, and with a visible doubt of the propriety
of their public appearance in that state.

There was also a Museum at Grossetto, and I wonder what was in it?

The wall of the town was perfect yet, though the moat at its feet had
been so long dry that it was only to be known from the adjacent fields
by the richness of its soil. The top of the wall had been leveled, and
planted with shade, and turned into a